Loob by Bob Leman

Source: Own Collection
Format: Hardcover
Rating:  3 Stars
Reviewer: Laurel

Leman investigates temporal paradoxes and their consequences in this short story. In some nothing town the north-east US, a town that was once something, lives a man called Loob. Loob is the local town idiot. Abused at home, bullied, dumb (apart from being able to pronounce his name as Loob), he’s a rather sad, sympathetic character. But he’s a character with immense power. Somehow, he’s able to change the past.

The tale is told by a young man whose life is affected by a change Loob made to the past – and, by apparent circuitous reasoning – the young man believes that Loob can put things right again. Actually, not can, but will. One day.

This was quite an interesting character sketch – both of the young narrator and of Loob. Leman draws an excellent picture of both the former wealth of the town as well as its present decrepit, by-gone state, and does so unashamedly. Even as this story is somewhat brutal, it’s very well-drawn and a good read.

As Time Goes By by Tanith Lee

Source: Own Collection
Format: Hardcover
Rating:  4 Stars
Reviewer: Laurel

This is an interesting story, although I’ll admit to a significant amount of headscratching. It’s a tale told by a woman on a space station at or near or around a white hole – a time-neutral way-station, of sorts (from what I can understand). It concerns a ship called Napoleon, captained by a Day Curtis. It tells of a time paradox whereby Curtis meets a young woman, first when she is aged 16, and again fifteen years later. Except the first meeting in her timeline is in his future, not his past.

I appreciated that Lee doesn’t define many of the terms she uses, but leaves the reader to interpret them. Also, I appreciated the confusion, as I feel it was a device specifically used to develop the atmosphere of the story, which in fact deals with the confusion of time/space/whatever outside the white hole zone.

An interesting read for anyone who likes temporal paradoxes and messing around with time.

At Dorado by Geoffrey A Landis

Source: Own Collection
Format: Hardcover
Rating:  4 Stars
Reviewer: Laurel

Dorado is a wormhole, one of three in the nexus, and the POV character, Cheena, lives on the port station that orbits Dorado. She is married to Daryn Bey, a navigator.

When news comes in of a wreck, Cheena realises the possibility that her husband could be gone. and regrets the argument they had before he last left – caused by a passing remark that Bey has a wife/woman in every port, something Cheena is unwilling to accept. And then the news is that the wreck is that of the ship he is out on.

However, when you’re dealing with wormholes, nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and this tale is no less convoluted for it. Between upspin and downspin and past and future, it’s no wonder the port is a neutral zone where no-one talks, and dead ships’ names are never mentioned. One cannot change the past or the future…

Given that this was quite a short story for its complexity, the temporal entanglements to be expected…. I felt as though something was missing… but perhaps that’s more a symptom of the silence the port station holds on certain topics. So for that reason, I think this was really well-written, as the sense it conveys to the reader is really that experienced by the main character.

The Clock Keeper by Melissa Delport

Source: Amazon
Format: Kindle
Rating:  5 Stars
Reviewer: Laurel

Fletcher and Clara/Clarke really camped out in my head while I read this book. This story totally captivated my imagination, and… I’m so sad it had to end!!!

Members of a perpetual society called Tempus, essentially the guardians of time, the Clock Keepers preside over a vast hall of clocks deep in the Grand Canyon – clocks that designate the lifetimes of every person on earth. They have one rule: never looj at a clock. But when Anna Kennedy, the Clock Keeper, spots the clock of the man she loves and attempts to break it to prevent his death, it is left to her younger sister to fix the ensuing mess, perhaps even preventing the unravelling of time itself.

I really liked that there were surprises along the way in this story. I thought I’d unravelled the plot, but Delport didn’t go anywhere near my ideas – for which I’m grateful!

Well-crafted and thoroughly readable, I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys some mild romance with the temporal paradox thrown in.